Salud Para Todos (Health for All) trains Promotores and Promotoras to address mental health, substance abuse, stress and violence in their camps and communities. In collaboration with Migrant and Community Health Centers, the program supports Promotores(as) as they provide health education, referrals and advocacy. In this way, the Promotores(as) help health care providers improve their service delivery to farmworkers and rural communities. As a result, farmworkers gain a trusted resource person, better access to health services and culturally competent information and support.
"For the last 30 years I have come to the same camp here in Michigan, and this is the first time that I feel that I have learned something of value besides earning money to survive. This has been a rewarding experience for the whole family. I hope that [Migrant Health Promotion] will come next year to continue teaching us how to improve our family communication."-Farmworker in Michigan
Since 2006, the Salud Para Todos model has been adapted and implemented in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas where Promotoras and collaborators are establishing new routes to primary, preventative and behavioral health care. The first three-year program, Nuevas Avenidas, operated in conjunction with Hope Family Health Center and Tropical Texas Behavioral Health. The program combined health promotion; peer health education and advocacy; accessible, culturally competent health care; and community organizing within targeted colonias. A subsequent mental health program, Futuros Saludables, began in May 2009 and expands Nuevas Avenidas’ impact by integrating nutrition and physical activity with mental health and primary and preventative health. Through collaborations with community organization ARISE (A Resource in Serving Equality), a local licensed social worker, and the mobile clinic unit of Ashley Pediatrics/Industrial Family Health, the program addresses transportation barriers by bringing mental health services on-site in various colonias. Consortium members meet regularly in order to ensure program integration and provide the highest quality services to the community.
Results
In 2002, sixty percent of farmworkers who participated in Salud Para Todos Programs in Colorado, Michigan and North Carolina reported decreased stress levels as a result of the program.
Results from the 2008 program in Texas show that participants (n=166) who attended group health education sessions increased their knowledge of symptoms of stress, drugs/alcohol addition, sexual abuse, gang activity, anxiety, suicide, schizophrenia, and nutrition by 24%.
LEARN MORE about how our programs are improving health outcomes.
Materials
Migrant Health Promotion offers free and low-cost materials and tools designed to support Salud Para Todos Programs.
Salud Para Todos Implementation Guide
Salud Para Todos Manual
Salud Para Todos "Teaching Notes"
Bilingual Flipchart: Domestic Violence
Bilingual Flipchart: Substance Abuse
Mental Health Needs Assessment Form
Profile
Stories from the Program
- A Promotor in the Salud Para Todos Program in North Carolina noticed that one of the men in his camp seemed very sad and worried. He talked with him, and the man confessed that he was feeling depressed and had other health problems due to worry and anxiety about his family in Mexico. He asked the Promotor if he would help him make an appointment at the clinic. The Promotor made the appointment and went to speak with the man afterward. The man told him that he felt much better after having talked with the Promotor and with a specialist.
- Patty, a Promotora in Maine, had been working with an adolescent boy who was a cutter. One night the boy became very upset about something and cut himself deeply. He came to her camp to get help, and she was able to get the leaseholder of the camp to call an ambulance. Luckily, the boy was brought to the hospital, and was alright. Patty made it her duty to speak with all of the boy’s friends to see how they were doing, and to make sure that they all had a chance to talk about how felt about the situation. Her ability to connect with children and young people was invaluable to our program.